I came across an article on line trying to find something to write about for this weeks blog. The article speaks about the very lucrative business of sex trafficking also called sex slavery. Young girls are bought and sold-often times bribed into the sex slave market. Trying to escape the meager financial situations that most if not all of these young girls come from. Human trafficking is a huge problem according to the World Health Organization, this ugly and degrading form of slavery is 30-40 billion dollar industry each year. Once they are sold into slavery they are then placed in the personal care of a "pimp" or a "mistress" at this point they young girls have to work off their debt to the them and it can take any where from 3-5 years . "An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders, due to the “hidden” nature of trafficking activities, gathering statistics on the magnitude of the problem is a complex and difficult task. The statistics are accurate as possible, given complexities, but represent an underestimation of trafficking on a global and national scale." The real numbers will almost never be known because of this, in America alone an estimated 18,000 persons are brought over the borders and held against their will.
Activist against human trafficking argue that there is a huge market for prostitution globally and the US is not exempt even though the problem is greater in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Russia. If there is no demand there would be no market, prostitution is not a new profession but in all fairness some prostitutes choose their profession unlike these individuals. There are looking for a better life in most cases trying to escape their poor and option less situations. Instead they are exploited, tortured, abused physically and emotionally and forced to live like commodities instead of a human being. Because of the rate of sexual exploitation all over the world the "UN finally reached a n accepted international definition of trafficking and an agreed upon set of prosecution, protection and prevention mechanisms which countries can base their national legislation."
I am fairly dissapointed that the UN did not act sooner. But from a young age I knew about this horrible and disgusting act against my fellow humans. I had once watch a documentary on it, and I was greatly saddened. But like any american child, I went on about my happy life distracted by commercials and television programs. If only more was done to reverse the desensitization of americans, and people across the world, so that perhaps we could do more to stop the trafficking.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there needs to be more done to prevent this human trafficking going on. It's so sad to think that none of these people choose to be in the situation there in and are made to deal with it on a daily basis. Prostitution is something that needs to be abolished as well but they actually choose to get into the profession. I can't even imagine how people feel from being trafficking and watching movies makes it even harder to think about.
ReplyDeleteI agree that human trafficking and the sex slave trade industry is outrageous. I first remember hearing about this problem related to the early days of the Natalee Holloway case, even though I don’t think that’s what happened to her. Since then we’ve seen it on a number of our prime time shows and even a few soap opera’s have touched on the issue, but there still isn’t enough been done about this terrible act against humanity. The government has said that human trafficking is now the number one export/import crime basically because you can sell people over and over again but you can only sell drugs once. How sad is that, we as a society have become so desensitized by human suffering that this is such a big and ever growing problem. There needs to be stricter laws and punishments for all individuals caught that are involved. We need to be more aware that this is happening to our women, men and children and that it is happening next door or down the street from us not just in foreign third world countries.
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